As a rule, the starting point for the manufacture of highly planar mold inserts for shaping tools is a so-called master pattern. It can be produced using the Liga method, the photo-resist method, the silicon-micropattern method, or otherwise. The mold insert for the shaping tool is produced by electroforming a master patter which is microstructured. To obtain stress-free mold inserts, the electroplating must be carried out in a very stress-free manner and, at the same time, at great thickness, approximately 3-5 mm.
The sheets obtained by electroforming are ground and fit into the shaping tool. In this case, it is disadvantageous that the deposition rate during the electroplating must be adjusted to be very slow to achieve the necessary freedom from stress. The entire duration of an electroforming process can be up to four weeks. During this time, expensive equipment cannot be used. Another disadvantage is that, as a rule, only one mold insert can be produced from a master pattern. This duration of the electroforming leads to high costs. However, for reasons of quality the deposition rate needs to be slow, since deviations from the planarity in further shaping generations, e.g., in the third-generation sheet, are greater than in the first-generation sheet. If only one mold insert can be produced from a master pattern, then, in this case, the costs per mold insert increase as well (as a rule, producing a master pattern is expensive).